Equations: 2018/2nd Edition (Dialectic Form)

This is the second edition of Equations by Adam Fieled (2018), originally released as a Blue & Yellow Dog print book in 2011, and employing "Dialectic Form."

#29 Trixie Belle is the

#29 Trixie Belle is the ultimate barfly. This is a woman who begins the day with a six-pack. She then orients all other activities around her drinks. Her primary occupation consists of latching on to guys who will provide her free alcohol for prolonged periods of time. This equation includes the possibility of sex, but Trixie Belle is shrewish, has a history of sexual abuse in her family and can never actually have sex. The facts are the facts: Trixie Belle is ravishingly, inescapably gorgeous. She‟s 5‟6, long-legged and thin; her face has the sharpness and the contours of a Vogue model‟s; straight auburn hair falls down her back and in bangs over her eyes. She‟s the kind of woman you can see once on the street and never forget. In spurts, she puts together bands and writes songs. Though a master of the fine art of couch surfing, most of Trixie Belle‟s money (there‟s not much of it) comes from her Mom, and she still has a bedroom in her Mom‟s two-story house in Upper Darby. I fall into Trixie Belle the way most guys fall into Trixie Belle: by mistaking her gorgeousness for inner radiance. Over several nights, a routine establishes itself: we meet at a bar and I buy her a few drinks; we then migrate to another bar and I buy her a few more drinks, etc. I look for excuses to play touchy-feely games; I accustom myself to considering Trixie Belle a new conquest. Motions are made to get Trixie Belle back to my apartment. Trixie Belle gets nasty when she sees the Penn degree on my wall; she needs an obedient mirror; I have become a disobedient one. As the night progresses, I see my illusions grated like cheese into little flakes. 36

#30 Trixie Belle has taken up a pair of scissors, is looking for things in my apartment to stab. She settles on a few of my chairs that have covers on them. I‟m drunk and don‟t have the will to resist. She stabs away and it becomes a metaphor for what I could do inside her. I live on the second story and there are many windows facing the street. Several tenants in the buildings across the street are watching Trixie Belle‟s exhibitionistic display. She decides to do interpretive dances to enhance the performance and I find myself severed from whatever innocence I might have left. I see, through Trixie Belle, that many people do lead pointless lives. The only equation that really moves Trixie Belle is a simple one: anything that lives needs to be destroyed. As I follow her movements, I realize two things: that she wants to destroy me, and that she‟s not shrewd enough to realize that her best strategy (like Trish‟s) is to give and then take away, rather than not to give at all. At the end of the night, Trixie Belle strips and gets into bed with me; but I‟m not allowed to touch. Her skin is perfect and porcelain-like; her breasts show no hint of sag. But she‟s been abused; her perfection is brittle and, beneath the madness, cold. 37

Equations, by American poet Adam Fieled, was originally released as a Blue & Yellow Dog print book in 2011. This e-book edition of Equations is bold-formatted for easy reading. Cover image by Pablo Picasso.